Russia and China, which have hosted
the lion’s share, signed the resolution two years ago with some reluctance.

But tiny Russia-backed Abkhazia —
firmly outside the U.N. family — offers Moscow a place to stash some of the
North Korean workers rather than ship them home. For Russia, there is a
strategic play at hand.

The Kremlin hopes the small cadre of
workers tucked away in Abkhazia will help win some more goodwill with Kim Jong
Un’s regime as Moscow tries to strengthen its influence in Asia, analysts say.

Around 400 North Koreans — mostly men
with wives and families back home to support — have been relocated to this
subtropical strip of land, with many in the main city, Sukhumi. Their nights
are spent in an abandoned Soviet holiday resort, surrounded by date palms and
decaying mosaics of Lenin.

By
day they are building apartment blocks and pharmacies and laying railway tracks
in a region still pockmarked by the secessionist conflict of the early 1990s
when Abkhazia, backed by Moscow, broke away from Georgia.

Abkhazia is
part of a constellation of separatist enclaves stretching across the former
Soviet domain, from a breakaway slice of Moldova in the west to quasi-states in
the Black Sea region in the east. For Russia, they are footholds to bypass
international norms and sanctions, and even provide an off-the-grid financial
system. The breakaway states are recognized by only a handful of pro-Russian
countries such as Venezuela and Syria.

About
10,000 North Korean workers remain in Russia — down from a high of about 40,000
— and Moscow has promised to send them home by a Dec. 22 deadline.

The 400
North Korean workers in Abkhazia are just a blip among what was once about
100,000 worldwide, sending home $500 million each year in remittance, according
to U.S. estimates. But it is Moscow’s way of keeping a lifeline open for
Pyongyang, analysts say.

Russia’s
Foreign Ministry “scrupulously fulfills the obligations stipulated by the
international sanctions regime,” spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told The
Washington Post. “As for the hiring of migrant workers from North Korea in
Abkhazia, it is advisable to address this issue to the relevant state or their
employers.”

While
Abkhazia likes to present itself as an independent republic, that is far from
the reality. A quick stroll through central Sukhumi, where the newly
built, sprawling Russian Embassy twinkles in the sun, shows who has sway over
Abkhazia’s affairs.

Earlier
this year, President Vladi­mir Putin welcomed North Korean leader Kim to Russia
for his inaugural visit, a meeting designed by both to send Washington the message that there are other players when it comes to dealing with denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.

But in
recent months, tensions have cropped up between Russia and cash-strapped North
Korea.

Thousands
of North Korean boats have been illegally fishing for squid in Russia’s Pacific
waters, even resulting in a fatal exchange of gunfire and the summoning in
September of Pyongyang’s chargé d’affaires, Chin Jeong Hyup, to the
foreign ministry in Moscow. After a North Korean vessel opened fire in
September on a Russian patrol boat, injuring three guards, the Russians
returned fire, killing a North Korean fisherman.

Once Moscow
recognized Abkhazia as independent in 2008, cash from Russia flooded
in. The United Nations and Western nations still see Abkhazia as part of
Georgia.

North Korean overseas workers have subsidized the Kim regime and its nuclear program for years. But new U.N. sanctions directly target the worker program.

Abkhazia is also keen to develop economic ties with other Russia-connected states shunned on the global arena, such as Syria and the Moscow-backed breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine.

A few
months after she was invited to Pyongyang, a group of North Korean officials
visited Abkhazia, where they sampled the local wine, kiwis and mandarin
oranges.